Category Archives: History and Legends

One of the most demanding climbs in professional road bicycle racing, Monte Zoncolan is a mountain in the Carnic Alps, located in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. It has been used in the Giro d’Italia six times (2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2018) and in the Giro Donne (Giro d’Italia Femminile, rebranded in […]

Montevergine is located near Avellino, in the comune of Mercogliano, in Campania, central Italy. The mountain is a limestone massif and part of the Apennine chain. Under the peak, at some 1,270 m, is the Sanctuary of MontevergineNotes 1 – where the climb ends.

Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy. With a height of currently 3,329 meters / 10,922 ft (this varies with summit eruptions), it is the highest active volcano in Europe outside the Caucasus, and also the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps. To date, the Giro d’Italia […]

Between 1946 and 1951, the Giro d’Italia had a special jersey, “maglia nera” (English: black jersey), for the last-placed rider. There was a real competition between many riders, to win this highly-coveted jersey. The last-placed rider would rode the final victory lap with the race winner each year around the historic Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan. […]

Today’s historic photo of the day: a mountain pass during the 1925 Tour de France. Frenchman Roger Lacolle (Météore) is leading the group (in the left, walking). The rider going the opposite way is a native, not a competitor.

This is the story of the last record attempt of Giuliano Calore, a racing cyclist, world champion of extreme cycling, holder of 13 records and won 98 medals. He was born in Padova (north-east Italy) in 1938. The movie titled “48 Tornanti di Notte” (48 Hairpin Bends by Night) tells about his most impressive challenge […]

Hugo Koblet, “Pédaleur de charme“, and Fausto Coppi, “Il Campionissimo”, two post-war era giants. They were good friends, until the Giro d’Italia 1953 edition. After that Giro, they would never speak to each other again. But, what happened?

This afternoon (on January 4, 2017) 105-year-old French cyclist Robert Marchand set the hour record for the category created especially for him by the UCI (105+). At the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome near Paris, managed to complete 22.547 kilometers in an hour! He fell just short of his 2014 record of 26.927 kilometers but what a phenomenal […]